Joe Weisenthal, executive editor of Business Insider, is leaving
the company.

Weisenthal is going to Bloomberg, where he'll
host a TV show and develop a news site about the markets.

He has been with Business Insider for six years.

When he joined in the fall of 2008, Business Insider did not
exist yet.

We asked him why he's leaving.

"I love BI and I never thought of leaving," he said. "But Josh
Tyrangiel at Bloomberg put together an offer that no journalist
could pass up."

It has been widely
reported that Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are being paid
over $1 million a year to host a show on politics for Bloomberg.

Business Insider's editor-in-chief, Henry Blodget, just sent
out this email to Business Insider staff:

Team,

I have some bittersweet news.

Joe Weisenthal will be leaving us this week to pursue an amazing
opportunity at Bloomberg. Joe will be the host of a new financial
TV show and the editor of a new markets and economics site that
Bloomberg plans to launch next year.

Joe has contributed a huge amount to Business Insider in the past
6 years.

Joe joined us as a junior writer on our Finance section during
the financial crisis. His talent, dedication, voice, news
judgment, and unbridled enthusiasm for our medium quickly became
apparent. As we grew, we eagerly gave Joe more and more
responsibility, and for the last few years, he has helped lead
the newsroom as Deputy Editor and Executive Editor. Over this
period, our readership has quadrupled.

We are sad to say goodbye to Joe, but we will always encourage
our colleagues to pursue great opportunities, here and elsewhere,
and this is an amazing one. Happily, we also now have by far the
strongest editorial team we have ever had.

Please join me in congratulating Joe. We wish him all the best.

(Sydney is arranging drinks tomorrow evening for a proper
good-bye. Details to follow.)

Henry

Joe sent out this response:

Thanks Henry and thanks to all of you! The last 6 years have been
a thrill and I'm going to miss it here tremendously.

Here is the earliest photo I could find of Joe from my iPhone.

It's from the summer of 2009, back when Business Insider was only
a few months old.

Nicholas Carlson

Here's Joe, back when he was a mere deputy editor, sitting next
to his first intern, Gus Lubin:

Jay
Yarow

Lubin is also now an executive editor at Business Insider:

Nicholas Carlson

Here's one of Weisenthal in a hat:

Nicholas Carlson

Here he is doing one of his favorite things, looking at a menu
full of Chinese food:

Nicholas Carlson

Here is a video from way back when, where he answers questions
about himself and early Business Insider: